


Saving Your Friends

by tptigger



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Gen, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 01:08:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13089252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: The Rangers plan to help with the clean up of Angel Grove





	Saving Your Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [genarti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/genarti/gifts).



> Many thanks to my first readers for their feedback regarding the draft, who I will hopefully remember to name after reveals. :) Any remaining mistakes are my own.

"Mom, it's Trini," Billy corrected with exasperation. Was she _determined_ to embarrass him? "I'm comin', I'm comin'." He needed to get his friends away from his mom before she did something really embarrassing.

He ran up the stairs, only to meet Jason and the others on the way down.

"I... aren't we going somewhere?" Billy asked, blinking in confusion. "I mean, we'd have to walk since the van..." he paused... "got stolen." He winked.

Jason grinned. "We were thinking we might go help with the clean up, but we probably need a plan of attack first."

Billy blinked. "Oh. Ok. Um..."

He backed down the stairs, carefully scanning the room. Yup, no underwear or other embarrassing objects visible.

Jason pulled out the desk chair and sat. The girls plopped down on the floor. Billy grabbed his laptop, pulling up the site that had lists of volunteers needed. Zack gravitated towards the shelves.

He grabbed the blue, round, squat figure with the funny hat off the shelf. "What is this, Billy?"

Billy shrugged. "Just something my aunt picked up at a flea market. OK, so the volunteer areas are at Ocean Bluff and Blue Bay Harbor with a second area at Oceanside and Amber Beach. Oh, this is a bummer, they mostly want people to pick up small debris and mark big debris. We can move the big debris!"

"We can't tell them that, Billy," Jason said.

"I know, but we made the mess, we should help clean it up, you know?"

"No one knows we made the mess," Zack said, grinning ferally. "No one needs to know we're cleaning it up."

"What do you suggest?" Jason asked. "Go out there morphed? The authorities still want to question us, remember? Best to do this as civilians." 

"Besides, I plastered and painted my room too," Trini said. "That's also helping, even though it's little."

"You just want to scope all the hot girls at the volunteer sites," Zack said.

"Are you sure that's not you?" Trini said.

"Guys..." Billy started.

"It's cool, Billy, we're just joking," Zack said. His tone was factual, as if he were just telling him the weather.

"Oh." Billy felt a blush crawl into his cheeks. He clapped. "Wait, I got it!"

"Well don't give it to..."

Zack cut off when Jason smacked him on the arm. "Don't Zack."

"The sooner Billy learns not to take anything Zack says too seriously, the better." Trini winked at Billy.

Billy laughed. Trini had a good point: most of the time, Zack was a kidder.

"We can sneak out after dark and move the big debris unseen!" Billy clapped with excitement.

"Ooh, it's dangerous and runs the risk of getting grounded," Kim said.

"I'm in," Trini and Zack said in unison.

Billy grinned. "So that's three to two?"

Jason took Billy's computer.

"Hey!"

"I want to see the site info," Jason said.

"Jason wants to scope out the pretty girls too," Zack said.

"You know," Billy said, standing up to gently relieve Zack of the squat blue toy, "psychologists have this term, _projecting_ , it's when you accuse other people of having feelings you have yourself."

Zack blinked at him.

"He just said I was right; you're the one who wants to go scope out girls," Trini said.

"There's a second debris shift going out in a couple hours," Jason said. "They're going to have people with chainsaws to chop up the big debris, and what it actually says is not to lift anything you're not comfortable with. They're sending out people in teams of five, and you can pick your teams."

"So you're thinking we just move the big stuff and hope no one figures out how it got in the dumpsters?" Zack asked.

"I'm thinking we can break it up with our hands for practice and no one's going to look closely enough to figure out it wasn't broken up with a chainsaw," Jason said. "It starts at 3. It's now 1."

"So we have two hours," Billy surmised.

There was a knock on the door.

Before Billy could shout out "we're fine, Mom," she had already come in, carrying a couple bags of potato chips, a stack of paper cups, and a two liter bottle of root beer.

"I thought you all might be hungry," Billy's mom said.

"Thank you, Mrs. Cranston," Jason said.

"Thank you," Zack said.

Billy hid his face. "Mom, we're fine."

His mom just ruffled his hair. "Don't worry, Billy."

She went back up the stairs.

"I'm sorry guys," Billy said, still hiding his face.

"For what?" Kimberly grabbed the chips. "I'm hungry!"

"My mom she..."

"Is a mom?" Jason said. "Don't worry about it, Billy, we all have parents."

Zack just stared at Billy, not saying anything.

"What, Zack?" Billy asked.

"Want to trade?" Zack asked quietly.

Jason winced.

"I said something stupid, didn't I?" Billy asked.

Zack looked at him, hard, then shrugged.

"You want to talk about it, Zack?" Jason asked.

"Or you can hit me if it'll make you feel better," Billy said.

Zack walked over and gently, very, very gently smacked Billy upside the head. "I make my mom breakfast. And give her her pills and...." He sighed. "It's exhausting, sometimes. Just.... having to take care of both her and me." He made a beckoning motion and Kimberly tossed him the chips. "I wish sometimes she could take care of me, you know?"

"Maybe you could borrow my mom sometimes," Billy said.

Zack snorted.

"I don't think it works that way, Billy," Jason said.

"I..." Billy paused. "I think I said that wrong. But we have a sofa bed. So if you need a break, maybe you can come crash on it. I wish I could come help with your mom or something."

"I could," Kim said. "On those days when you need a break, you could text me and I could swing by and check up on her if you want."

"I might take you up on that," Zack said.

"What's the point of saving the world if we can't save our friends," Billy said. Then he paused. "That was really sappy, wasn't it?"

"It's OK, Billy, we love you anyway," Trini said. She beckoned towards Zack.

"What?" he asked.

"Pass the chips," Trini said. "You're allowed to vent, but you have to share."

Zack handed her the chips. "Just so we know where I stand." He looked around at the others. "Thanks guys. Really."

"Anytime," Billy said. "I'll try to be less cheesy."

Jason looked at Billy, then grabbed him in a headlock. "Quit apologizing." He applied noogies to the top of Billy's head.

"Don't! Too much!" Billy tried to squirm away.

Jason let go immediately. "Sorry."

"Everything OK down there?" Mrs. Cranston called.

Billy covered his face. "Fine, Mom."

"I got a little carried away, Mrs. Cranston, but I think we've got it under control," Jason called.

"Billy?"

"I'm OK, Mom," Billy called, his hands still over his face. 

"He says he's OK, you just can't hear him because he's covering his face," Trini called up.

"If you need a break, Billy, just tell your friends you do," Mrs. Cranston called. The door to the basement shut behind her.

"I'm OK, everyone's just freaking out at me and it's freaking me out a little." Billy dropped his hands from his face, clapping them together nervously.

"What do you need?" Jason asked.

"To talk about something else." Billy grabbed the squat toy off of the shelf, rubbing his fingers over the surface. "Anything else."

"So, Zack, is there a particular girl you're planning on scoping out later or..."

Zack tossed a pillow at Trini.

Billy laughed, glad to be surrounded by his friends.

End


End file.
